World Affairs
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GREGORY MCCARTHY. Australia’s iron(ic) curtain hurting China ties
2017 was earmarked to celebrate 45 years of Australian–Chinese diplomatic relations. Instead, Australia alleged that China interfered in its national affairs and the China Daily reported that an on-line poll had voted Australia as the ‘least friendly nation to China in 2017’. Likewise, a Global Times editorial accused Australia of McCarthyism and said that Australia Continue reading »
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The Right to Keep and Bear Arms; and to use them
Guns and arms are embedded in US culture. It seems unable or unwilling to fix this, even though its people want it fixed.Its arms manufacturers are opposed to any solution. This shapes US foreign policy. Our engagement in this syndrome endangers us. Continue reading »
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NICK SEDDON. Democracy in danger. Or, how to get GetUp.
Proposed amendments to the Electoral Act if enacted will profoundly constrain or shut down political advocacy that is the lifeblood of a healthy democracy. Continue reading »
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The Alliance: Deeper thought required urgently
This is not the time to deepen our commitment to the alliance and, become ever more involved in the US’ imperium and need for enemies. We need to think freshly about our international relations and security. The recent Foreign Policy White Paper, constructed by Julie Bishop, was depressingly free of any such fresh thought. The Continue reading »
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JIM COOMBS. Trickle Down – My Hat !
The orthodoxy of the Neoliberal Economics (Let’s call it Nasty prehistoric Unfair capitalism, NPUC for short) asserts in the face of universal contradictory evidence, that giving capitalism free reign benefits the poor and the weak. Pull the other one! Continue reading »
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The American Empire, China, the Region and Australia
As the American Empire weakens we see a tendency to look to China and seek security in a nebulous concept of “the region.” We are not facing up to the defence of our continent by Australians for Australians. Continue reading »
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Admiral Harris : Ambassador or Viceroy?
The appointment of Admiral Harris as Ambassador to Australia raises serious concerns about the role he will play in the development of Australian strategic policy as we seek to maintain the sort of relationship with China and the US outlined in the White Paper. Continue reading »
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A new Cold War arms race has begun
In the immediate post Cold War period, regular United States Nuclear Posture Reviews have been relatively restrained, emphasising no first use and no attacks against non nuclear weapons states which are signatories of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. With his 2018 Review, however, President Trump has thrown circumspection out the window. Citing new emerging threats Continue reading »
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Many are thinking: we can surely do better as a nation
Across the country there is much amusement, and a good deal of bewilderment. People are asking: how can our subservience to Washington’s bidding hit such an all-time low? How can a government think it can shape Australia’s future security and prosperity by mouthing one inanity after another? Continue reading »
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Deeply Denying the American Reality. Part 2: Australia’s avoidance means complicity.
In any other context but the alliance, the facts attending the US global strategy at both the conventional and nuclear levels would be seen by Australian strategic analysts and policy-makers for what they are – profoundly threatening developments and habits of mind which threaten international peace and security and the ecology of the planet. But Continue reading »
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Deeply Denying the American Reality. Part 1: Faces Australia Chooses Not to Recognise
The alliance with the United States is not now what it was thought to be at the beginning because the US itself is not now what it was thought to be. The problem was that, even then, it wasn’t what Australian leaders thought it was. The rose-coloured view remains however: no evidence in official Australian Continue reading »
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ERIC WALSH. Down the Trump rabbit-hole; a review of “Trumpocracy” (David Frum) and “Fire and Fury” (Michael Wolff)
Donald Trump, no longer a tyro as the President of the United States, has already rated himself one of the most successful ever occupants of the esteemed office. Continue reading »
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Changed America is now a threat
Malcolm Fraser’s lucid case for Australia to strike out independently from the USA in its foreign and defence policies (Dangerous Enemies, MUP 2014) pointed to a vitally important fact. The America we signed the ANZUS treaty with in 1951 is absolutely no longer the America with which Malcolm Turnbull would have us joined at the Continue reading »
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The Philippine War and the Saviour syndrome
The American war against the Philippine Republic which began in 1898 and its subsequent colonisation of the Philippines teaches us many things about perennial American beliefs and actions. The concept that the US is saving somebody from something is a constant in American foreign policy. Some even believe they saved Europe from Hitler! We need Continue reading »
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PETER DRYSDALE AND JOHN DENTON. Australia must move beyond Cold War thinking
Searching for evidence of ‘Chinese influence’ in Australia? Look no further than the census. Around 1.2 million people declared themselves of Chinese heritage. About 600,000 were born in mainland China. And while recent coverage of alleged Chinese ‘influence’ in Australian politics might suggest otherwise, the Australian-Chinese community is not a dagger pointed at the heart Continue reading »
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Australia’s curious neglect of citizens of Asian origin
Last year, I commented on the puzzling neglect of Asian-Australians in the country’s public life, in particular Parliament. Published in Pearls and Irritations on 3 October, the article seemed to resonate among many readers and generated more messages in response than usual with blog posts on this site. It also caught the attention of ABC Continue reading »
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SUSAN RYAN. Ruddock and the religious freedom review.
In commercial matters religious freedom needs no further protection. There is no case for extending exemptions from existing anti-discrimination measures to the commercial provision of facilities, catering, furniture or entertainment that may play a part in hospitality following a marriage. Such goods and services are not a legal part of the civil marriage contract and should Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. Revisiting Australian strategic policy in the light of NDS18 – Where to start ?
The new US strategic policy requires serious and urgent revisiting of our key strategic policy positions to identify implications it has for Australia. Any attempt to minimise differences for short term political gain could endanger the nation’s longer term future. Continue reading »
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …
In an article in the Fairfax Press, Clancy Yeates points out that Australia’s big banks have “slashed loans to fossil fuel companies by almost a fifth in 2017, including a 50 per cent drop in their coal mining exposure”. On last weekend’s Saturday Extra, Geraldine Doogue interviewed Laura Dassow Wallis, author of Henry David Thoreau: Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. We are joined at the hip to a country perpetually at war. Part 5
Next week I will be posting articles asserting that we are running great risks in being tied to what Malcolm Fraser called “our dangerous ally”, an ally almost always at war. The risks pre-date Donald Trump. Think Vietnam and Iraq. In recent issues of P & I I have posted many articles about the US Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. It’s time for a Human Rights Act for Australia -A repost
In Pearls and Irritations recently, Elizabeth Evatt (Why not protect all our rights and freedoms?) called for a Human Rights Act to protect all our rights and freedoms and not just freedom of religion. The issue of freedom of religion is being examined by Phillip Ruddock and his ‘expert panel’. This issue is also being Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. China : “All the way with USA” ?
The Turnbull Government was clearly caught flat-footed by the significant change in the Trump’s security strategy announced by Defense Secretary Mattis. Defence Minister Payne’s initial comment and background briefings had to be corrected quickly. All of which underlines the urgent need for detailed review of NDS18’s implications for Australian strategic policy. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. The State of the Union: Pantomime, With Menaces
Trump’s State of the Union speech was filled with menaces to enemies both foreign and domestic. US policy is now comprehensively militarized and in the hands of Trump’s Generals. It was a dangerous pantomime, with much cheering from Republicans who still seem to hope that no one will notice the Faustian bargain they have done Continue reading »
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JAMES O’NEILL. When will the Australian Opposition and Parliament actually do its job over the Syrian war?
The US Secretary of Defence, General Mattis, recently announced that the US was intending to create a 30,000 strong “border force” to occupy a portion of northern Syria. This is territory in which the largest group are ethnic Kurds who in the past have been supported by the US, not on any principled basis but Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. We are joined at the hip to a country perpetually at war. Part 4
Next week I will be posting articles asserting that we are running great risks in being tied to the US, an ally that is almost always at war. The risks pre-date Donald Trump. Think Vietnam and Iraq. In recent issues of P & I, I have posted many articles about the US almost perpetual involvement Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The TPP was never all about the economic gains, even for the most dedicated rent seekers. The strategic planners – especially in Australia, Japan and South Korea – saw the original TPP as a means of locking America involved in Asia as a permanent bulwark against the dominance of China, whose government was pointedly excluded. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Israel’s Manus/Nauru solution – Rwanda.
How incongruous that a country born of the worst genocide in history should want to deport asylum-seekers seeking shelter to a nation synonymous with another genocide. That is the intention of Israel – send their unwanted visitors to Rwanda. Virtually all of them are Eritreans and Sudanese, both their countries ruled by harsh despots. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. A hard or soft Brexit. More likely Black and White
Letter from London Britain finds itself trapped like a fish with no way out other than capitulation to the best terms it can get – in relation to which the remaining 27 EU members have the upper hand. Continue reading »
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …
On Saturday Extra this 27th January Geraldine Doogue is discussing the cost of government consultants with Julian Hill, ALP member for Bruce and businessman Tony Shepherd; Changes to gambling laws with Charles Livingstone from Monash University and Sam Duncan from the Holmesglen Institute in Victoria; Supreme Court judge and author Michael Pembroke on his book Continue reading »
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MICHAEL MULLINS. What happened to my Australian accent?
I spent the summer of 1983-84 in the Philippines. During this time I fell in love with the Philippines and its people and felt ashamed to be Australian. Continue reading »